Fiasco, Continued

March 24, 2008 continued

Our new memory-foam mattress was to be delivered, we were promised, between 1:00 and 3:00 the next day -- Saturday. Fantastic, I thought; what timely service! And I didn't have to schedule any time off work. Soon our purchase would be complete and life would be good.

Or so I thought. Saturday morning after breakfast Joe and I pulled the old mattress and box springs off the bedframe. The deliverymen would take it and dispose of it after delivering our new mattress. We waited for 1:00.

Then we waited some more. Soon it was 2:00. Another hour dragged on and it was 3:00. Where were our guys?

The phone rang. We were sure it would be the deliverymen telling us that they are on their way, or maybe that they were running a few minutes behind. No, it was the warehouse manager saying that our delivery was rescheduled for after 5:00.

5:00?? Knowing that a lot earlier would have been nice, before we wasted a whole afternoon waiting at home. It was a beautiful spring day, and we could have been out somewhere enjoying the sunshine.

Oh well, we thought, at least the store was considerate enough to call us. We waited some more.

The truck arrived around 7:00 or 7:30. Finally! Although we were weary from waiting we were elated that the waiting was finally over! The deliverymen found first our foundation, then our mattress, from among the conglomeration of other furniture items in their truck, pulled them out, and dutifully carried each piece into our house.

Each worker stood on a side of the bedframe. The first man tilted the long side of the upright mattress toward the second man, who caught it so that they could both gently position the mattress upon the rails. Down the mattress went...

...onto rails that were too small. What? I thought that "queen size" rails were universal, and that any brand of mattress would fit on a set of rails!

I've had this bed for probably 20 years. It's a Kincaid. It was the first furniture purchase I ever made in my life. I adored cherry wood furniture and was in love with the old Victorian-style designs. Young and full of ideals, I was determined to have solid wood and a quality brand name no matter what the price, not some cheap discount store/pressboard gig. I don't remember the name of the model I finally bought, but I do remember finding it at a Jernigan's Warehouse Sale in Chattanooga back in the late eighties.

The headboard and footboard set came with slats for both full-size and queen-size rails. When I was single I bought a full-size mattress and full-size rails. When my first husband and I got married we bought a queen-size mattress and queen-size rails.

I still have the queen-size rails we bought in the early nineties. Well, obviously, mattress styles have changed in the past 15 years. Joe and I would have to buy a new set of rails.

The deliverymen left our mattress and foundation with us as they went on to finish their deliveries for the evening. We rested the pieces against the foyer wall as we pondered whether to go ahead to the furniture store that evening (it was after 8:00 and we weren't sure when the store closed) or just wait until Sunday and sleep on the floor Saturday night. At that point I would have gladly slept on the floor.

After calling the store to confirm their hours, and to confirm that they even had a set of queen-size rails in stock, we decided to go ahead and trot down to the furniture store and pick up the rails. The warehouse had them ready when we got there.

We paid for them and tiredly drove back to the house. Joe installed the rails. Great, we thought, we'll be sleeping on our new mattress tonight!

As Joe worked away I happened to look at the label. The label on the mattress and foundation, that is. The model name was "Apollo." I thought we had picked out an "Athena." I checked the invoice. Sure enough, we purchased an "Athena." We were given the wrong mattress set.

Oh no, not one more snag. Was this ever going to end? I was starting to think that it just wasn't meant to be for us to have a new mattress!

Well, you know what we did? After calling the store manager and telling him our problem, we loaded the wrong mattress, plastic wrap and all, onto the new rails, and slept on it for the night. Oh, it was noisy -- every time one of us moved, the plastic covering crackled. But at that point we were NOT going to sleep on the floor!

Finally the following Tuesday we were delivered an "Athena" and the deliverymen hauled away the "Apollo." I wound up taking time off work after all, but I lay on our new mattress for a solid hour that afternoon, enjoying our purchase. This strange and bumpy experience had finally come to a happy end!